


Episode 47: Ba'buir's Back!

by PitoyaPTx



Series: Clan Meso'a [47]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Clan Ordo, Gen, Mandalorian, Mandalorian Clan, Mandalorian Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22652104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitoyaPTx/pseuds/PitoyaPTx
Summary: "I wouldn't give up my peace and quiet for anyone but my grandchildren." ~JiikJiik makes good on his promise to visit his grandson, but not on his promise to keep those words out of his mind.
Series: Clan Meso'a [47]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1261364
Kudos: 1





	Episode 47: Ba'buir's Back!

[Thud]  
A bag of miscellaneous cuts of meat hit the freezer floor and slid to the other side after a firm kick from its porter. The young woman, about thirteen, wiped her hands on an apron haphazardly tied over her armor then skipped out of the cold storage and into the kitchen proper.   
“What’s next?” she asked her trainer, standing at the counter with four others her age on either side of him.   
“Now, we prepare the bones for stock,” he said, tapping the bowl on the burner in front of him, “We’ll need to boil the impurities off first.”   
The sounds of splashing water echoed around the room as the girl sidled up next to a pale-yellow togruta with dark grey eyes. He was trying to crack a large femur on the counter but so far had no luck.   
“Gotta sharpen my knife, I guess,” he shrugged, shoving it back into his side pouch, “Can I borrow yours, Tal?”   
She nodded and handed hers over, “But you know, you should really get a new one. Yours doesn’t like to hold its edge.”   
He shrugged again, “It’s not the blade’s fault. It was my ba’buir’s. It’s not like most knives around here.”   
“What do you mean?”  
“It’s,” he paused, cracking the femur and tossing it into his pot, “just made differently, I think.”   
“You mean it’s old?” she snickered.   
He grinned albeit distantly, “Yeah. I guess so.” 

“This is pretty good,” said Jiik, sipping the broth from a glass jar, “You’re improving.”   
Tir smiled widely, “I thought you’d like it! I sent a holo to Beon weeks ago asking for advice.”  
“Did you now?” Jiik raised an eyebrow, “What did he have to say?”  
“Just that you’re old and need more vitamins in your diet, so I loaded it up with that brown root thingy he sent me a picture of.”   
“Figures. Anything else?”  
Tir shook his head, watching his grandfather intently.   
“What?”  
Tir smiled sheepishly, “Do you think I can go back to Duxn. With you? I’m almost done with training.”   
Jiik set the mug down on the counter, turned and put both hands on his grandson’s shoulder.   
“I’ll make you and your ma a deal, alright?”  
Tir nodded enthusiastically.   
“Listen, when-”  
“Okay!”   
Jiik sighed again, “You know, I don’t know who you inherited your energy from.”   
“Heh well I’m just excited is all, I,” Tir hesitated, “I just...get lonely here.”   
The older Togruta frowned, “Your mother isn’t back yet?”  
Tir shook his head and his shoulders slowly drooped, “Control said she did check in, but she said she got another lead and then the war…”   
Jiik straightened up and put his hands on his hips, “She found a new informant or what? I thought the trail went cold.”  
Tir shrugged, “You should have see the way she looked when she found out. You-”  
“Weren’t here,” he finished solemnly.   
Tir fiddled with the cuff of his gloves for a moment, then looked up at his grandfather.   
“Can I go with you? Please?”   
Jiik crossed his arms and studied the boy for a moment. Thirteen years old and still following ba’buir around; it didn’t surprise him but spending several years away from his family made their visits jarring. It started back during the war. Jiik, his wife, and his son fought together alongside Ibri, Garrigon, and Chellin. His son, Dvada, began pulling back from the fight when his longtime partner, Anhari, became pregnant with their first, Tir’s older brother Seru. Seru was the reason Jiik ended up leaving Ordo and heading to Duxn, because that’s where Anhari chose to give birth and where she chose to raise their family. Thank Kad for Nea, he used to tell himself. Nea, his wife, would have shot him had he come home before the war was won, or at least over, but losing his montril to a vibroblade ended his run. It was the cabin fever during his recovery that led him outside the day he first met Fent and Beon. They were Tir’s age, maybe a bit older. Young adults at least, but they still fought each other like children. Nea wanted to adopt them. They were old enough to remember the war, to lose their parents, but too young to fight in it. Jiik stopped her. In Beon’s case, he had his sister; Fent on the whole didn’t seem bothered being on his own. Not that he didn’t miss his parents. He just seemed to take it well, and he had Beon. They bickered constantly, but Jiik figured all they needed was a good training routine and a maybe a home cooked meal on the days they didn’t annoy the tar out of him. They weren’t his sons, but he’d always keep an eye on them.  
...losing his children, his blood children, was probably the reason their relationship went south.   
Deathwatch killed Dvada as retaliation for his part in the war. Anhari has been on a vendetta ever since, and it seems like she thinks another war will bring them out of hiding. Or at least, into a more vulnerable position. He and Nea took care of Tir when she was gone. Seru helped too, but it wasn’t long before he joined his mother. When she was home, she doted on Tir as if it were the first time she’d seen him. She took him on small hunts, taught him how to shoot a blaster, but then was gone the moment she got wind of Dvada’s killers. Tir understood, until he didn’t. It seemed noble to him, admirable, that she would avenge the father he never knew. He and Nea, however, were concerned. Her mental health was slowly deteriorating to the point that it seems she doesn’t even come back when the trail goes cold. Jiik couldn’t remember the last time he saw his daughter-in-law. Maybe when Nea died.  
“Old age gets the best of us,” he’d said to a tearful Tir, “that and heart attacks.”   
No one found that last bit funny, nor did he intend it to be, but he chuckled despite himself. Maybe it was the impossibility that she was gone. Nea was so strong. So full of..   
He shook his head. Haven’t used that word in a long time.   
And Nat? She vanished. He came in one day with Fent and Beon after bo staff training and found his quarters a mess. He shooed the boys out and looked around, finding a small safe on his holotable. His small safe; the one he kept-  
“Is it up to ba’vodu?” asked Tir, breaking his train of thought.  
“Our Alor?” Jiik corrected him.   
Tir flushed, “Yeah, I meant that.”   
Jiik smiled slightly, “No, it’s not up to ba’vodu. But it is still up to your mother. I was going to make a deal with her that once you’re of age, you come back to live with me.”   
Tir’s eyes lit up, “Really?!”  
“I don’t see why not.”   
Tir leapt up and punched the air, stumbled the landing, and fell montril first into Jiik’s stomach.   
“You know if we didn’t wear armor I swear you’d have run me through years ago,” he laughed, helping Tir to his feet.   
“Sorry,” he panted, brushing dust from his kama, “But I really miss home. It’s not the same without you around.”   
Jiik put an arm around him and gave him a squeeze, “Not the same without you either. I don’t mind the peace and quiet but..”  
Tir shoulder checked his side, “I could be louder if you want!” he yelled.   
Jiik winced as his ear implant wined, “No no, I think I’m fine. Now go on. You should finish dinner with the others.”   
“Fiiine,” Tir groaned, giving him a hug, “I’ll talk to buir when she’s back. I bet she’ll say yes!”   
“I bet she will,” Jiik agreed, waving until Tir disappeared down the hall.   
Once he was out of sight, Jiik let his hand drop to his side and the smile faded from his lips. 

No, he hadn’t used that word in a long, long time…

…choxultz.


End file.
